Novotel Okinawa Naha — Hotel in Naha

Nice but… we arrived at 12 and the check in was at 15. As the hotel was far from places you can spend 2-3 hours like shops or cafes we thought of waiting in a lobby.

First, the space in front of the front desk is not a lobby but a restaurant. I thought of having coffee and asked if I can have one. “Have” is not the right word 😂 each person aged 4+ must purchase at least one drink. The funniest place ever. I don’t like when any place creates circumstances that push you to make an order even it is a bottle of water or a cup of coffee. This was the first time in my 20+ years of travelling when I the hotel was that pushy.

No problem, I can wait in any other place.

The second is issue is the location. I checked the map and accessibility by public transport but in reality things are much worse. 15 minutes you need to reach the nearest station are 15 minutes uphills under hot okinawian sun. Taxi is the only option. Even locals don’t go by foot in this district.

At the check out I asked about the breakfast. The only thing I could get is that I can use the breakfast and it will be charged on my room. Perfect, but how about the opening hours, price and type of a breakfast they serve?

The bathroom is smelly. With a mix of cigarettes and urine it actually smells like a one in a cheap pub.

The room is not spotless (see attached photos). Windows are dirty, lots of various stains around the room.

Booking a room in the outskirts I thought it could have been a bit cleaner than in a city centre. No 🙁

The swimming pool is on the second floor and a non-instagram picture of the pool is attached. Overcrowded. The pool is 1m depth as written on it. I wonder how people that are taller than 1.7 m can use. A huge bath 😅

The breakfast is definitely one of the poorest I’ve seen on the Okinawa island. The only fish or seafood they have is deep fried something (a photo is attached). As for meats they offer a park pot which is sausages boils with pork legs or something (see photo) and ham. No bacon, no meatballs, no tuna, no shrimps… For ¥2800 you get a variety of drinks, breads and some vegetables. Even scrambled eggs are disgusting....

An absolute worst hotel in my life, and during my trip in Japan. They claim it’s only 7 years old (in 2025), but it looks like it was built in the 1960s. It is dirty, filthy, smells bad everywhere. When checking in, upon entering the room, it had a bad stuffy smell (no ventilation). After running the AC for 20 minutes, thank god it cleared up. But the room didn’t feel clean, it didn’t smell clean. The shower has mold and the white flooring is inconsistent in colour (yellow shades). All the vents have heavy dust on them, they haven’t been cleaned or wiped in years. They should be cleaned at least every 3-4 weeks given the amount of time the AC is running in the rooms. The room has a dense carpet throughout which is impossible to clean thoroughly between guests (if one guest walks in the room with their shoes on, it’s already dirty and no vacuum can fix it). So you can’t ever be barefoot in the rooms, it’s a health hazard.

The Elevators are extremely slow, they have 3 elevators that take forever to come. You have to always account an extra 7-10 minutes if you want to leave in the morning.

The hotel is mostly busy with families, so you will hear kids screaming at all times. They are at the buffet, lounge, pool. You won’t be able to have a peaceful time or conversation without the screaming on the background.

Regarding location, the hotel is far away from all the beaches you might want to visit. It’s also about 40 minutes walking distance from the shopping district, which is impossible to walk in a summer heat (but you can still take a bus or subway). But no way to get to a nice beach. To be on a nice beach, you have to stay on Miyakojima or other smaller islands. But not mainland Okinawa.

On the website it looks great, but in reality it’s the biggest disappointment. How it has 4 stars is a...

We booked through booking and already payed the stayed, when we arrived to the hotel, they asked us for pcr or the Covid vaccine passport which we didnt know we need as it was not written anywhere, so they told us because we dont have those documents, the reservation was not valid as the price we paid was a promotion and they have to cancel our reservation and make a new (and more expensive) one, we asked them to show us where that promotion was written, and they could not (because it was not written anywhere, we have our vaccine passports at home so it would not have been a problem to bring it with us if we had known). Then, they took a long time to cancel our booking a make a new one, our original booking had breakfast included but because we had to do a new one, that was no longer an option and remove the breakfast from it (They gave us breakfast tickets only for the first day as a "service" as if they were doing us a favour ). After that, they told us to go back to the hotel the next day at a certain time so we could pay the new fee making us rearrange all the planes we already made just to please the hotel, the next day when we were out, we call the hotel and have to explain to another staff member of the hotel the whole situation as the previous staff did not inform anything about to the other members, but luckily we could pay at check out so we did not have to come back at the time they told the day before.

To resume, they cancel our reservation for no legit reasons, had to pay way more, remove our breakfast plan, waste a lot of our time and gave us a lot of stress (we came here just to relax for a few days), so We will not be staying in this hotel or any of their...